“I’m devastatingly serious.” I chuckled under my breath.
“I think you’re overselling the danger.”
I glanced at him as we stopped at the next intersection. “Do you meet sources alone?”
“Sometimes.”
“On short notice?”
“Sometimes.”
“And you go to the place they chose, telling yourself it’s controlled because you understand the person or the story. You’re wrong about the room more often than you’ll admit, but you’re right about the person often enough to keep doing it.”
His mouth had gone flat. “That’s a neat trick.”
“I’m not doing tricks.”
“No?”
“No. Tricks are for birthday magicians and men on apps who say they’re six-one.”
When the light turned, we crossed with a knot of office workers. One man had a Dunkin’ cup in each hand and a conference badge flipped backward on a lanyard. A bike courier blew through the intersection against the signal.
We passed a bank with mirrored glass and a revolving door. I caught our reflections in the windows. Wiley was narrow and intent. I was taller and more relaxed. A man in a navy pea coat walked past us, phone to his ear, head down.
I let him pass.
He had a normal gait and was speaking in an irritated voice. He wore a wedding ring, and his left shoe was scuffed at the toe.
We turned off Atlantic and cut toward Milk Street. The sidewalks narrowed. Office towers pressed close overhead, and the old brick buildings sat tucked between newer glass. Somewhere nearby, a truck backed up with a repeating beep.
Wiley’s phone buzzed. I caught his wrist before he got it out of his pocket.
He stopped.
“Don’t,” I said.
“Take your hand off me.”
I did immediately. My move was a violation.
His jaw tightened. “You don’t grab my wrist.”
“I stopped the phone. Not you.”
“That sounds better in your head.”
He stared at me for a beat, then looked away. His hand remained in his pocket.
“Who would be texting?” I asked.
“Many people. I’m popular and professionally inconvenient.”
“Try again.”
He exhaled through his nose. “My editor or my husband. It could be sources. Cabot, maybe, though I doubt he texts.”
“Why wouldn’t he text?”